Microsoft releases public beta of Office 365

Microsoft on Sunday night released Office 365 to public beta, with a focus on small businesses. Office 365 is a rebranding of the Business Productivity Online Suite, a package of the cloud-based versions of tools such as Exchange, SharePoint and Office Communicator. With the rebranding, Microsoft also is adding the Office Web Apps, which were launched for consumers alongside Office 2010 last summer. It also includes Lync, which itself is a rebranding of Communicator. Office 365 was previously in limited beta testing.